U.S. application Ser. No. 09/614,508 (filed 11 Jul. 2000) discloses a wireless short-range communication network. With respect to said communication network, reference is made herein to the same Applicant's international PCT application, which claims priority from said US application. FIG. 1 illustrates the architecture of a communication network. A wireless short-range communication network 10 comprises a host 11 including one or more short-range radio transceivers. In the immediate vicinity of the host 11, the communication network 10 also comprises beacons 12 for extending the operating range of the network 10. Each beacon 12 comprises one or more short-range radio transceivers. A beacon 12 is able to communicate over the radio path with the host 11 by means of its short-range radio transceiver either directly or via another beacon 12. Terminal devices 13, such as mobile stations or portable computers, can connect to the communication network 10. The terminal devices 13 that are connectable to the network 10 each comprise a short-range radio transceiver. If the terminal device 13 is in the operating range of the host 11, it is able to communicate with the host over the radio path directly by means of the short-range transceiver. If the terminal device 13 is not in the operating range of the host 11, but is in the operating range of a beacon 12, it is able to communicate with the host via the beacon. U.S. application Ser. No. 09/614,508 states that said short-range transceivers may be transceivers utilizing the Bluetooth technology and having a range of about 10 meters at normal power.
The host 11 serves as a gateway for the terminal devices 13 to networks external to the communication network, such as the Internet 14. Thus, the host 11, hereinafter referred to as a gateway, provides the terminal devices 13 with an interface for message switching between the communication network 10 and networks external to the communication network.
In order for the gateway to be able to communicate with a network external to the communication network, the gateway has to have an adapter. A commonly used adapter is a network interface card (NIC). However, a network interface card only provides the gateway with one IP address. Thus, the terminal devices in the communication network have to share the IP address of said gateway. In this case, the IP address of the gateway is given as the address of the receiver for example in all messages/packets arriving at the gateway from outside the communication network and intended for terminal devices in the communication network. Thus, the gateway has to have means to identify the terminal device in the communication network for which each message is intended.